It all started in the Stone Age when the Neanderthals had to take care of warming during the Ice Age. Along with the hide capes, they used skin fragments that were wrapped around the leg and fixed with leather cords on top. It's hard to say if this design was a prototype of shoes or socks, but it was both.
A prototype of socks appeared in ancient Greece, and it was something like flip-flops made of soft leather, covering the heels and toes. Women did not rush to demonstrate this detail of the toilet in public - leather socks were considered "nightwear", they were worn when going to bed.
And an ancient Greek man who would dare to appear on people in such clothes for feet would be laughed at.This was used by comedy actors who knew that their appearance on stage in leather socks would provoke an explosion of fun.
Then the socks (as well as many other things) moved from Greece to ancient Rome. Probably, they would have been considered for a long time only a female detail of the toilet, if not the British warriors. It was they who, having seen the leather things on the feet of the Romans, decided that they can be quite useful for the martial arts. The belligerent islanders, who wiped their feet during the long passages, improved the overseas design and began to put their rough shoes inside.
When one hundred years later the socks that had come out of Rome returned to the Eternal City, men were no longer considered shameful to flaunt them, and the poet Marcial even sang this toilet item, calling it "a refuge for the feet of fabric. Socks at the time were more like modern golf - they covered almost the entire shin.
Later on, from century to century, socks rose higher and higher, until they turned into stockings. Catholic priests liked them very much, and in the fourth century, white linen stockings became an obligatory attribute of their costume. The laymen did not immediately decide to follow their asses, but gradually got used to stockings. By that time, the stockings were made of wool and other fabrics; they were not sitting on their feet, wrinkled and gathered in folds.
Knitted stockings first appeared in Spain in the XVI century. They were knitted by hand and decorated with embroidered colored inserts. Such stockings were so highly valued that they were not shameful to give to the king - English King Henry VIII, for example, received such a gift. In general, in the Middle Ages stockings were a necessary item of clothing, in the cold season, men wore a dozen pairs at once. It is known that then, as a rule, knitting was done by men, not women.
A difficult fate fell to the inventor of the hosiery and tie machine - the master of philosophy, a Cambridge graduate William Lee. In 1589, he created a machine that was able to make a thousand two hundred loops per minute - instead of a hundred with the usual manual knitting. The miracle machine was shown to the queen. But Elizabeth I did not like the fact that the machine knits only rough woolen stockings, not thin silk for aristocrats. Lee was denied a patent.
He also built a machine for knitting silk stockings, but neither Elizabeth nor King James I, who became after her death, showed any interest in her. The desperate inventor had no choice but to accept the invitation of the French King Henry IV and move to France. Together with his brother, eight workers and eight cars William Lee settled in Rouen, where he was well received by the local authorities.
However, the sudden death of Henry IV at the hands of the murderer marked the collapse of all his hopes: Maria Medici deprived Lee of any patronage. The inventor went to Paris, where he died of a heart attack. Still, Lee can be considered the founder of the French knitwear industry: the first thousands of pairs of stockings were tied up on the machines of Protestant craftsmen.
Joke about socks:
- Vintage Chronicles tell Men's socks scattered around the apartment often cause many family conflicts and troubles. That's why men need at least to give them some gifts to make amends to their wives for "wonderfully fragrant" scattered socks. For example, to buy perfume for your beloved woman to, at least, neutralize the sock "fragrance".
At the end of the XVIII century, the circular knitting machine was invented in France, knitting a canvas in the form of a pipe. Machine knitting stockings quickly replaced handicrafts, as they were much cheaper. The French Revolution, replacing the culottes with long trousers, seemed to have condemned the stockings to disappear, but the court costume of Napoleonic times caused them from oblivion. Later, of course, the machine received recognition and universal application, thus ensuring the ready-made socks in mass production.
In the XVII century cotton was used, and in the XVIII century under Peter 1 the Great soldiers of the Russian army used porch women - wrapped their feet with a rough cloth and put on boots. However, porch women are still used today.
And only the general fashion for pantaloons (after 1815) finally dealt with men's stockings. They began to shorten, shorten, shorten ... until they again turned into socks. And finally shortened during the First World War, when due to lack of material manufacturers began to save on the length of socks. Well, women's fashion socks (in their modern form) again entered the first third of the last century.
XX century was marked by the appearance of suspenders for socks. Up until that time, socks were made without rubber bands and constantly fell and clung to. After the appearance of rubber bands on the toe, the need for such suspenders disappeared. At the same time, with the appearance of women's trousers, socks shyly returned to the women's wardrobe.
The socks become more elastic and durable thanks to the appearance of nylon in 1935. The length of the trousers increases and the length of the socks shortens. The addition of this material to the composition has made men's socks more accessible, and they appeared in the wardrobe of those men who until then did not consider them a special necessity.
The socks were gradually divided into costumes, sports, home, and everyday socks. Fortunately, the constant improvement of men's socks does not standstill. And if you know where to look - you will find a lot of quality, comfortable, beautiful and stylish socks.
- Dear women, if your husband scatters socks around the house and sits with a bottle of beer in front of the TV, then you are the only one with whom he feels good.